An Electronic Program Guide (EPG) is delivered by a front-end system and presented to a user through a terminal. It includes Broadcast Television (BTV) programs in all channels. The user can browse all BTV programs on the terminal, and select favorite BTV programs.
BTV is also known as live broadcast television. Currently, it is one of the main services of a Set Top Box (STB). A significant feature of the BTV service is that the start time and the end time of each BTV program are relatively fixed, and will not be advanced or postponed at a user's discretion. The BTV programs will not be rebroadcast at the user's discretion. Therefore, the user tends to miss some BTV programs which should not be missed.
Currently, a user selects favorite BTV programs in the following modes:
Mode 1: Browse the BTV programs in the EPG information, select a favorite BTV program, and press the OK key to access the channel of the BTV program and watch the program.
Mode 2: From any channel, press the channel switching key (the channel up key, or the channel down key) continuously to select a favorite BTV program.
Mode 3: Memorize the channel number corresponding to a favorite BTV program, and press the number key corresponding to the channel number to switch to this channel.
Mode 4: See information provided by the STB which prompts the user to decide whether to watch a reserved favorite BTV program upon arrival of the time of playing the reserved BTV program, and press the OK key to watch the program.
In the process of implementing the present disclosure, the inventor finds at least the following problems in the prior art:
In the prior art, when the user wants to switch between programs or reserve a program, the user needs to perform plenty of operations, or browse and memorize plenty of program information, which deteriorates the user experience.